Glyphs / PADS

A glyph is a letter combined with other characters, such as numbers or symbols.

To the right of each letter, there are two slots: high and low. These slots contain numbers that indicate turns.

Update May 2025: TKA software now handles the placement of these numbers, so it's less important that you learn this. Don't sweat it. Focus on the motions.

In a hybrid, motion types are different and must be disambiguated. These rules indicate where to place numbers:

• High: Pro, Anti, Dash
• Low: Static

The motion that is higher on the list is indicated by the high slot. Remember the order with the acronym PADS, for Pro, Anti, Dash, Static.

The letters S and T have another factor, leading/following. In their case, leading is high and following is low.

There are five hybrids, each shown below in their corresponding high/low slots:

• Type 1 Dual-Shift (Pro/Anti): C, F, I, L, O, R, U, V
• Type 2 Shift (Leading/Following): S, T
• Type 3 Cross-Shift (Shift/Static): W, X, Y, Z, Σ, Δ, Θ, Ω
• Type 4 Dash (Shift/Dash): W-, X-, Y-, Z-, Σ-, Δ-, Θ-, Ω-
• Type 5 (Dash/Static): Φ, Ψ, Λ

The remaining letters have combinations of the same motion type. For these, put left in the high slot and right in the low slot.

These letters include: A, B, D, E, G, H, J, K, M, N, P, Q, S, T, Φ-, Ψ-, α, β, Γ